Look at these examples of Starbucks' advertising which all have been in the marketplace in the past month. Given the three different logos and the unclear location of their "beans for home use" ads, me thinks that Starbucks needs to stick with decaf and rethink its strategy.

July 10, 2010

What's The Price?

I was searching for rental cars for an upcoming trip to Sacramento that I have and went to a minor aggregator that I had not used before, RentalCars.com. A quick comparison versus well known sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotwire suggested to me that RentalCars.com could indeed save me up to $100. And for a $100 savings, I am willing to seriously consider a company that I have not heard of prior.

When I put in my parameters such as location, date, pick up ands drop off time, I was given a quick summary page that highlighted the options that it had aggregated. The first thing that I found odd was the different prices shown per option. In large, bold font was a price per week, in descending order. Underneath each price listed was then a "total price" that was a higher number in each instance. In the case of the first item listed, an Economy Car from Enterprise, I was being quoted $217 a week as well as $361.12 as a "total price". So what price would I pay for my trip to Sacramento? Clearly not both, so why am I shown two? Oh well, let's click on the Enterprise Economy Car option and see what's what.

Oh, this clears it up. It's not $217 not $361.12, as shown on the prior page. It's an entirely new price ($289.34) that I couldn't get to until I was lured into the next page. This new price, as evidenced by the prominence on the page, the boldness of the type, the linkage to the details of my trip on the top of the page, is what I need to consider before I make a decision. Right?

Wrong. Now move your eyes to the left of the page to the Summary of Charges section and, once again, we see $361.12 as a contender in our "what's the price RentalCars.com is really charging me?" game.

This really isn't that challenging. A user gives the specifics of a trip- date ranges, locations, car type desired, add ons, etc. The goal is to compare prices-- total prices -- and then make an informed decision. Aggregators like RentalCars.com should make this comparison very easy. But for some reason RentalCars.com has decided that it would be valuable to show me what a "weekly rate" for a specific car is even though I do not need it for a week, I need it for longer. And as such, doesn't it simply make sense to show me what I am seeking, the total price, instead of monkeying around with three distinct prices, resulting in a level of confusion, frustration, and causing me more work than is really needed?

Comments

What's The Price?

I was searching for rental cars for an upcoming trip to Sacramento that I have and went to a minor aggregator that I had not used before, RentalCars.com. A quick comparison versus well known sites such as Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotwire suggested to me that RentalCars.com could indeed save me up to $100. And for a $100 savings, I am willing to seriously consider a company that I have not heard of prior.

When I put in my parameters such as location, date, pick up ands drop off time, I was given a quick summary page that highlighted the options that it had aggregated. The first thing that I found odd was the different prices shown per option. In large, bold font was a price per week, in descending order. Underneath each price listed was then a "total price" that was a higher number in each instance. In the case of the first item listed, an Economy Car from Enterprise, I was being quoted $217 a week as well as $361.12 as a "total price". So what price would I pay for my trip to Sacramento? Clearly not both, so why am I shown two? Oh well, let's click on the Enterprise Economy Car option and see what's what.

Oh, this clears it up. It's not $217 not $361.12, as shown on the prior page. It's an entirely new price ($289.34) that I couldn't get to until I was lured into the next page. This new price, as evidenced by the prominence on the page, the boldness of the type, the linkage to the details of my trip on the top of the page, is what I need to consider before I make a decision. Right?

Wrong. Now move your eyes to the left of the page to the Summary of Charges section and, once again, we see $361.12 as a contender in our "what's the price RentalCars.com is really charging me?" game.

This really isn't that challenging. A user gives the specifics of a trip- date ranges, locations, car type desired, add ons, etc. The goal is to compare prices-- total prices -- and then make an informed decision. Aggregators like RentalCars.com should make this comparison very easy. But for some reason RentalCars.com has decided that it would be valuable to show me what a "weekly rate" for a specific car is even though I do not need it for a week, I need it for longer. And as such, doesn't it simply make sense to show me what I am seeking, the total price, instead of monkeying around with three distinct prices, resulting in a level of confusion, frustration, and causing me more work than is really needed?

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John P. Kotter: A Sense of UrgencyRegardless of how important WE think an issue/initiative/opportunity is, the goal is to get your organization behind it. Kotter's books spells out how to accomplish this. (****)